


mayview's streets at night

by whytho



Category: Paranatural (Webcomic)
Genre: I don't even ship it, Other, i will write one thing with m and j and it will not be bullymagnet, this Is Not bullymagnet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-14
Updated: 2016-01-14
Packaged: 2018-05-13 20:56:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5716828
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whytho/pseuds/whytho
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>zoey: small little sister or ultimate wingman? </p><p>nah, johnny has no wingmen.</p>
            </blockquote>





	mayview's streets at night

**Author's Note:**

> this is Not Bullymagnet. seriously just let me have friendship.

Dust blew across an empty Mayview street. The town corner store, still open, stood aloof, its lights bright and glaring from the cracked storefront windows. A window on an upper floor banged open, the girl behind it hurrying to close it. In the dimly light street, two crowds stood face to face: one big, one small. 

The leaders of the West Hill’s kids stood at the head of the larger group.

“Well?” one of them asked. Their voice was apprehensive, nervous, but ready for a fight. It was coming, they knew. They could feel it in their bones. 

The question they had asked would not be answered. 

A dark mass began emerging from opposite the gang. A few kids from West Hill broke away in fear, lost in the darkness further down the slope. The mass moved into the light and solidified into people. 

Without warning, the people left behind their streetlight and charged forward as a one. The West Hill kids put up their fists and braced themselves. The two groups faced each other, armed with nothing but guts and gumption, and got ready for a fight to last the ages. 

Their fight had barely even began before it was interrupted. The corner store’s doors flew open, landing sweeps of light on the concrete road. A boy stood backlit by the fluorescent, eyes wide and hands clenched tight around a metal bat. 

Johnny Johnny, frozen mid-tussle, blinked in the sudden light and stared up at the figure above him. It couldn't be, he thought. 

And yet it was. 

“Johnny?” the figure above him, the shape that resembled an angel, asked. “Why are you fighting outside my shop?”

It was Max. 

Johnny scrambled back, feeling the rock of the asphalt even through his jeans. With a guilty look behind him at the other gang, he shrugged a little and got up.

“I- dunno,” he said. He shoved his hands in his pockets and attempted to appear casual. It didn’t really work. “Me n’ the boys n’ RJ, we were just- goin’ through town. Yup. That’s it.”

Max gave him a look that clearly said he didn’t buy it, but let it slide. Turning to face the other gang, he gave them a look that could have halted elephants. They all backed away, chuckling nervously, then scampered off into the darkness. Max sighed. 

“You guys should probably come inside.”

Johnny gaped at him at him for a few seconds until Stephen nudged him. All five of them stepped into the corner store, uneasy in fluorescent. 

Max dropped his bat, grabbed a some Ace bandages and a couple band-aids and sat RJ down on the counter. They’d gotten scraped, just a little on their forearms, but apparently Max was gonna go all out. He nodded over to the freezer in the corner, where cheap ice-cream was stacked in rows.

“Help yourselves.”

Ollie narrowed his eyebrows at him. “Don’t we need to pay for this stuff?” he asked. 

“Nah.”

Shrugging, Stephen jogged to the freezer. Ollie followed slower. After tossing one to RJ, Stephen raised an eyebrow at Johnny and tore a wrapper off with his teeth. Johnny shook his head. Ollie leaned against the case with his and stared long and hard at Johnny.

There was a jar of gummy bears on the counter, right next to Max’s pile of bandages. Johnny tapped the glass with a finger, looking like he half considered freeing the sweets from their clear prison. He didn’t. 

RJ asked, “Why don’t we we need to pay?” in a tone that this is one of those times they’re gonna force for an answer. 

Max looked down at RJ’s arm, wrapping it carefully and tightly, and replied, “My family- kinda owns the shop.”

Silence, then a small, “Oh.”

The store was quiet for a few more seconds, filled with only the sound of RJ attacking their popsicle with suspicion. Quiet, that is, until footsteps begin thumping down the stairs. 

The Jang watched as a girl, small and unassuming, peeped around from the doorway. She was behind the counter, so it was hard to see, but she was wearing a nightgown with ducks on it and looks awfully like Max.

“Max,” the girl asked slowly. “Why are there people in the shop so late and why do they have ice cream.”

“Ah,” Max said from his place by the counter. “Zoey, aren’t you meant to be in bed?”

The girl- Zoey- narrowed her eyes at Max, and it is easy to see that they’re siblings. “Aren’t you meant to close the shop at nine thirty?”

They stared at each other for a few seconds, faces identically blank. Johnny and Stephen began to realize what having siblings was like. RJ began to realize that the Puckett family was very, very, weird.

The impasse ended when Max sighed, tossed Johnny the spare bandage, and said, “They’re, uh, they’re my friends. And they’re having ice cream because… because it’s late, and I think we all need some ice cream.”

Zoey’s eyes lit up. She dashed over to the corner, just like Stephen had, and grabbed a few bars of sweetness. Without asking, she threw one at Max, and another at RJ for good measure, then turned to Johnny. 

Her eyes were the same color as Max’s, and Johnny nodded blindly, still holding the bandage Max had tossed. Smirking at him, Stephen and RJ wiggled their eyebrows. He didn’t notice. 

Zoey threw him a Magnum, and he caught it one-handed. Dumbly, Johnny stared down at the ice cream in one hand, and the bandage in the other.

Max looked up from his cold goodness and saw Johnny standing stock still. “Oh,” he said, not surprised but filling the silence. “Can you put that away? Or get Zoey to do it.”

Johnny turned his stare to him. Max sighed, gently, and grabbed the bandage. He handed it to Zoey, who decided not to return it to its proper place but to drop it back on the counter. Peering up at him, she frowned a little. 

“Why are you acting weird?”

Johnny spluttered and flinched away from her. She frowned harder.

”Look, I may not know you, but you’ve bought at least eight containers of ice cream here before and Ace bandages. Also some golf cards, but that part doesn’t matter. You know where this stuff is. You might be Max’s friend, but I’m his sister, and I work the cash register. I know when people are trying to hide something.”

The entire room stepped back, apart from Max, who was probably used to it. Johnny’s eyes went wide as he pulled nervously on the hem of his jacket, and he clearly wanted to disappear. Weird, how a boy that once took apart an entire playground with his bare hands and hair gel was scared of a little girl. 

Zoey pressed closer to Johnny and he backed further away, the room staring at them. She froze, then turned away, back to face her brother. 

Zoey laughed despite herself, eyes widened a little, in the way people do when they know something no one else does, and leaned back on the counter. And in that moment, she looked just like her brother.

**Author's Note:**

> somebody (i can't remember who you are but I LOVE YOU) (in a platonic way tho) was like, johnny and max seeing each other at the corner-store? and i was like yeaaaa 
> 
> if this has typos and stuff, please tell me. please. pleeeasse.


End file.
